Circular Wallonia: what concrete results?

With Circular Wallonia, Wallonia adopted a circular economy deployment strategy at the beginning of 2021, for which more than 220 million euros are being mobilized by 2024. Supply chain disruptions and soaring energy costs demonstrate the importance of being able to relocate certain supply chains and think differently about a number of materials. After more than a year of implementation, let's take stock of the first concrete results of this strategy the first concrete results of this strategy, as well as current actions and future opportunities for our Walloon companies. Mélanie Rensonnet, Circular Economy Deployment Strategy Coordination Unit, SPW Economy

Through Circular Wallonia, the challenge for Wallonia's public services and their partners is to raise awareness of the opportunities offered by the circular economy, and to support businesses in this transition. Indeed, the first circular maturity barometer of Walloon companies conducted by the Walloon administration in the second half of 2021 among 2,500 companies (VSEs, SMEs and large enterprises) shows the extent of the work: 80% of companies are not familiar or not familiar with the concept of the circular economy (60% don't know it at all and 18% know it, but it's still very vague), and around 20% know the concept well.

Circular Wallonia aims to facilitate companies' circular transition companies through greater visibility and reinforcement of and support mechanisms. In the light of current events (import dependency, political instability political instability, price volatility, late deliveries, etc.), it is increasingly it is increasingly urgent to ensure a circular transition within companies companies to ensure sustainable supplies and competitive competitiveness. Despite significant progress the development of a more circular Walloon economy, major efforts to encourage economic players to follow this path. to follow this path.

First concrete results A series of ambitious circular projects have already been launched thanks to various forms of support. These include

The implementation of collaborative projects linked to circular innovation, notably through the validation by the Walloon government of 18 projects for a decarbonized and circular economy proposed by competitiveness clusters for a total amount of 113 million euros. These include two structuring programs:

The Remind program (for REverse Mineral INDustry) aims to accelerate the circularity of building materials in Wallonia. A number of projects, for example the circularity of precast concrete, the development of a lime kiln to capture and concentrate CO2, etc. The Reverse Metallurgy program, whose projects focus on the circularity of metals needed for the energy energy transition in order to underpin the necessary increases in of production, or offering sustainable management of equipment end-of-life batteries.

The first pilot edition of the Go Circular call for projects supports new circular economy projects, changes in business models business models or the introduction of circular purchasing. purchasing. Companies are supported to the tune of €20,000 to 80,000 depending on the project category. 17 companies are winners of the 2021 call for proposals, with projects ranging from the implementation of a functional economy project for diapers for crèches, to the development of to the development of healthy, gourmet cookies based on fruit fruit co-products, or the creation of a microfactory for innovative innovative textile techniques. Reinforcing circular economy financing NEXT (SRIW).

Thanks to a call for projects issued under this scheme, six recycling recycling unit projects have been selected by the Walloon government to create a genuine industrial sector. Among the six projects, Canadian group Lavergne will recycle technical polymers from electrical and electronic waste. Or or, in the Grand Duchy, LuxPet, a subsidiary of American PlastiPak, is recreating preforms for PET plastic bottles and trays from PET waste. plastic waste. LuxPet obtains its PET flakes (and a few other other plastics) from third parties who grind and wash used bottles bottles collected from sorting centers. The unit in Wallonia will produce the flakes itself, which it will then deliver to LuxPet's LuxPet plant at Bascharage, near Messancy. In addition, France's Total and Belgium's Vanheede will jointly build a multi-material platform that will also process rigid plastics into aggregates. aggregates.

Actions in progress A number of initiatives are currently underway in the following areas:

The development and structuring of 6 priority value chains is work in progress in the field, led by coordinators in close collaboration with industry federations, research centers, universities and companies. These sectors are at the crossroads of European priorities and Wallonia's ambitions and assets. They represent great potential in terms of value creation, Walloon competitiveness and local and the creation of local, non-relocatable jobs. These 6 priority value chains value chains are construction and buildings, coordinated by the Greenwin cluster plastics, coordinated by the Greenwin cluster metallurgy/batteries, coordinated by the Mecatech cluster water, coordinated by SPGE and the H2O Cluster textiles, coordinated by Centexbel food industry and food systems, coordinated by the Wagralim cluster.

These priority value chains are accompanied by the biosourced support theme, coordinated by Valbiom.

Specific awareness-raising, support and training initiatives are offered to the players involved in these value chains, supporting them circularity, recyclability and lifecycle of their products and services. products and services.

In terms of business financing, we should also mention the following schemes SOWALFIN : Easy Green and the circular economy referent networks who provide free support to companies in their circular economy initiatives. The new Digital 4 Circular Wallonia program program activate digital technologies to accelerate the deployment of the the circular economy. The 1st call for proposals closed on October 3. on the themes of construction, energy storage and the water cycle. Other support initiatives will be rolled out over the coming months. A call for projects by the GreenWin cluster is currently open. March 2023 is currently open, with the theme: "Circularity in plastics" in collaboration with Plastiwin. Final pre-projects are expected by December 2022. Through exemplary public purchasing, Wallonia aims to stimulate demand for circular products and goods, with a particular focus on SME access to public contracts. The Green Deal for Circular Purchasing brings together 170 public and private partners around this ambition for circular purchasing. They are supported by the Green Deal's unique learning network, bringing together all signatories, buyers and facilitators, in a single community.

Future opportunities Among the flagship actions to be carried out over the coming months, we can pinpoint the following opportunities: A new call for Go Circular projects will be launched in December 2022 for 4 project categories: Launch/Starter, Diversification, Transition and Scale-up. Circular Design coaching courses will be offered to companies to integrate the circular economy right from the design stage of their product or and gain in competitiveness. Companies will be supported by Wallonie Design (all sectors), by PLASTIWIN (for plastics), by the MecaTech cluster and its partners EKLO, Sirris, Agoria, CRMGroup (for metals/batteries). A series of industrial symbiosis initiatives will be rolled out over the coming months in a number of business parks, following a call for projects issued over the summer to local development agencies. Companies will be able to benefit from support designed to help them better control their costs and supplies, by exchanging flows (potential synergies) or pooling resources (equipment, purchasing, logistics, etc.). Intelligent mapping of resources and needs is currently being put in place for the metallurgy/batteries metallurgy/batteries value chain. This mapping is the first step towards the creation of a Critical Metals Observatory in Wallonia. It will provide the Region with information on potentially/economically recyclable resources in Wallonia, on the needs of Walloon industry for metals derived from recycling, and on international opportunities for valorizing urban deposits of critical and strategic metals. of critical and strategic metals. Complementing this mapping, work will also be carried out on improving collaboration between companies in the sector to share materials (industrial symbiosis practices). The "Circular Wallonia Days" will take place from November 16 to 18, 2022. These three days of conferences and company visits are organized around the theme of "Materials and metals in a cross-border economy". cross-border economy".) The event, organized by Mecatech, is part of the European Raw Materials Week. A call for projects entitled "Circular construction sites and services", aimed at encouraging the emergence of pilot practices in terms of circularity in the construction sector and in terms of services accompanying construction sites.

Take part in Wallonia's circular dynamic! As can be seen at this stage, the Walloon government is committing significant resources to deploying the circular economy across the country. This strategy is helping to revive the economy and build a resilient economy, by ensuring greater independence in terms of resources. A representative panel of key players and pioneers in the field, of which companies are obviously a part, are initiating, concretizing, reinforcing and amplifying the actions of the Circular Wallonia strategy, thus participating in the pursuit of Wallonia's ambitious objectives in this area, which are, let's not forget: a 25% reduction in direct material demand and domestic material consumption by 2030, and a 20% increase in Walloon jobs contributing directly and indirectly to the circular economy by 2025.